WAMC c/o 2027

[heymimi]

Hi everyone!

I'm a second time applicant from California that will be applying this upcoming cycle in May. To be honest, I wasn't ready both mentally and academically the first time I applied, but I still did so due to family and personal pressures. When I was met with rejections from all the schools I applied to, I communicated with a few of them and the vets I've worked with and decided to do a pre-health post-bac program for a year (which I am still in) to take more upper div science courses and boost my GPA.

I also have a bit of a unique background from my undergrad years -- I was in an emotionally abusive relationship during my freshman year which eventually led to academic probation and eventually disqualification. I was absolutely devastated when I received my disqualification email and it became a major wake up call that pushed me to let go of many old habits, people, and mindsets to become who I am today. That summer, I got a job at a local vet clinic as a kennel assistant and receptionist, took classes at a CC for a year, and worked with my advisor from undergrad to eventually get me back into school. Despite all the personal and academic growth I've undergone, I know that having this on my transcript/record isn't a pretty sight to vet schools as it will make them question whether or not I'm suitable for vet schools. But since then, I've had an upward trend in my undergrad GPA and am currently in the post-bac program I mentioned earlier to show that I really have grown.

In addition to my GPA, I think a major setback in my app was a lack of consistency in my experiences and my purpose in becoming a vet. I've always loved animals and knew that this was what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, but I had a lot of trouble putting everything into words. After receiving my first round of rejections, getting a job in shelter medicine (which changed my entire perspective of vet med), getting into to my post-bac, and losing my childhood pet to a heart attack, I think I've gained the maturity I needed to apply to vet schools once again. I know it will be tough with my stats, but I'm praying that there will be that one school that I can see all the effort, energy, and determination I've put in to continuing to pursue vet med.

Already applied to: WesternU (dream school), Kansas, Virginia Tech, Davis
Application in progress: does anyone have any recommendations for schools that view apps more holistically? I'll definitely be applying to Michigan, Arizona, SGU, and Ross this next round!

Cumulative GPA: 3.04
Science GPA: 3.19
Last 45: 4.0
**(All calculated by my post-bac advisor who uses the AMCAS calculator)**

Degrees achieved
- BS in Animal Science (June 2020)
- Pre-Health Post-Bac certificate (August 2022)

Veterinary Experience:
- Receptionist, kennel assistant, vet assistant in the same private practice clinic for 4 years (2,300 hours)
- Worked in shelter medicine as a vet assistant at a non-profit feline rescue/adoption center (~800 hours)
- TA and lab instructor for a veterinary medicine enterprise course taught to first and second years (80 hours)
- Volunteered at a homeless shelter providing free veterinary care to pets for an enterprise class (60 hours)

Animal Experience:
- Co-manager of a non-profit student-run cat shelter on undergrad campus for 1 year (100 hours)
- Currently working with a non-profit organization that works to stop the dog meat trade in China

Research Experience:
- Conducted an at-home research project for an animal behavior class (hardly think this counts)
- Thinking about doing Loop Abroad's virtual zoo research fellowship since I'm a full-time student with 2 puppies right now (does any have any experience with them?)

Awards/scholarships:
- Dean’s list (Fall 2019 & Spring 2020)

Extracurriculars:
- Part of many multicultural clubs on campus
- Pre-veterinary club member

LORs:
- Veterinarian from private practice that I instantly bonded with; graduated from WesternU
- Veterinarian from cat rescue; I was the only vet assistant working with her and we had to basically revamp the whole rescue together
- Committee letter from my post-bac program

Personal statement:
While I will definitely be talking about my disqualification in my explanation statement, in my personal statement, I want to emphasize how my experiences and setbacks have not only made me stronger, but also kinder and more understanding. I want to show that the time I've taken to improve my app has helped me find my true purpose in vet med (shelter medicine, working in countries like China to teach vet students there and bring perspective to end practices such as the meat trade) and how I want to use my personal experiences to help both animals and people.

Main concerns: history of academic disqualification, low GPA, is a post-bac program enough?

If you've made it this far, thank you for taking the time to read I would love to hear about anyone else's personal experiences that they're willing to share!!

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[BlackCatsRuleTheWorld]

Some good additions to your list might be Iowa, Minnesota, LMU, Mississippi. Kansas seems to be more GPA focused so that could be one to knock off. Your upward trend in GPA is great and it's good that all of your GPA calculations are above 3.0. Keep in mind some schools have their own GPA calculations and may use different science classes in their science GPA so it's a good idea to look at their websites for that.

Do you have any experiences NOT in the vet med field? If so make sure to include them. Your vet experience is really strong but many programs value experience outside the field.

Also were you able to do file reviews?

 

[battie]

Already applied to: WesternU (dream school), Kansas, Virginia Tech, Davis
Application in progress: does anyone have any recommendations for schools that view apps more holistically? I'll definitely be applying to Michigan, Arizona, SGU, and Ross this next round!

Are you a California resident? If so, keep Davis on there. Otherwise, take Davis off for sure and add whatever school is your state schools. While Western may be your dream school, I would strongly recommend attending any cheaper school you get into. They are one of the most expensive schools and the money is not worth the name when the degree is the same.

Schools to add: Illinois in addition to the others already suggested.
Schools to not add: Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Georgia, TAMU, Louisiana, Cornell, Penn (depending on where your state school is)

Take a gander at the AAVMC public data to see where you fall with the other 17-18 schools you qualify for.

Extracurriculars

Add everything and calculate the hours. Break up the multicultural clubs into different entries.

Also add non-vet med and animal related information such as employment and such.

Main concerns: history of academic disqualification, low GPA, is a post-bac program enough?

How long has it been since your disqualification? What do your GPA trends look like semester to semester?

There is almost nothing you can do with your cGPA at this point. You likely have over 200 credit hours, which won't really budge much. What you can and already have influenced are your last 45 GPA and potentially science GPA.

The post-bacc may not be enough, not gonna lie. Depends on the schools you apply to, how they perceive the grades you got before and after, and how you spin your story.

Things you can control:
1) Airtight letters of rec. They must be glowing with praise.
2) Airtight essays. Have several, non-biased people look at your essays (personal statement, explanation statement, and secondaries).

 

[heymimi]

Some good additions to your list might be Iowa, Minnesota, LMU, Mississippi. Kansas seems to be more GPA focused so that could be one to knock off. Your upward trend in GPA is great and it's good that all of your GPA calculations are above 3.0. Keep in mind some schools have their own GPA calculations and may use different science classes in their science GPA so it's a good idea to look at their websites for that.

Do you have any experiences NOT in the vet med field? If so make sure to include them. Your vet experience is really strong but many programs value experience outside the field.

Also were you able to do file reviews?

Thank you for the school recs and for replying! I don't have too many experiences outside of vet med I was about to start volunteering at an equine facilitated therapy center but couldn't go through with it due to some schedule conflicts. It's mostly focused on assisting disabled children/veterans during their riding sessions with their therapists. I know it's still animal-related but do you think I should opt for this or maybe looking for more non-animal related experiences?

Also, I was able to do a file review with Kansas State. They told me that my science GPA was too low (2.48 at the time) but that was about it.

 

[heymimi]

Are you a California resident? If so, keep Davis on there. Otherwise, take Davis off for sure and add whatever school is your state schools. While Western may be your dream school, I would strongly recommend attending any cheaper school you get into. They are one of the most expensive schools and the money is not worth the name when the degree is the same.

Schools to add: Illinois in addition to the others already suggested.
Schools to not add: Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Georgia, TAMU, Louisiana, Cornell, Penn (depending on where your state school is)

Take a gander at the AAVMC public data to see where you fall with the other 17-18 schools you qualify for.

Add everything and calculate the hours. Break up the multicultural clubs into different entries.

Also add non-vet med and animal related information such as employment and such.

How long has it been since your disqualification? What do your GPA trends look like semester to semester?

There is almost nothing you can do with your cGPA at this point. You likely have over 200 credit hours, which won't really budge much. What you can and already have influenced are your last 45 GPA and potentially science GPA.

The post-bacc may not be enough, not gonna lie. Depends on the schools you apply to, how they perceive the grades you got before and after, and how you spin your story.

Things you can control:
1) Airtight letters of rec. They must be glowing with praise.
2) Airtight essays. Have several, non-biased people look at your essays (personal statement, explanation statement, and secondaries).

Hi battie, thank you for your response! I appreciate the honesty and super helpful info

Yes, I am a California resident! I would love love love to go to Davis over WesternU (due to costs like you mentioned) but I'm just not sure if I'm able to get in. Do you know if Davis is more holistic when it comes to IS applicants? One of my old coworkers who just graduated from Davis told me that they care a lot about GRE as well but my scores were average (W: 4.5 / Q: 154 / V: 157).

I'm in the midst of organizing my experiences and making sure I have the correct hours down but thank you for the advice! Do you recommend writing about experiences as reflections instead of simply noting down what I did? My post-bac advisor said it was best if we wrote down what we did but also what we learned instead of simply jotting our tasks down. I did the latter during the first time I applied and I think that might've been a mistake since it took some life out of my experiences.

Regarding my disqualification, I was a freshman in Fall 2015 and was disqualified right after my first year so Summer 2016. I was at home working and taking classes to get back in for the following year, so I returned Fall 2017. I came back as a second year and to be honest, my grades were still a bit shaky throughout that year since I was still learning how to study better and more efficiently. Junior and Senior year (Fall 2018 - Spring 2020) was when you really saw the upward trend in my GPA and I got onto Dean's List twice my Senior year.

Also thank you for the honesty about my post-bac program. While I know it might not be enough, I'm glad that I was at least a little smarter this round and decided to be proactive instead of blindly reapplying. I know it's going to take a lot of work refining my application in a way that really showcases my strengths but I'm definitely going to try. I also spoke to someone who said that it was more important to retake the prereqs I got a C in instead of a post-bac/masters.. I'd love to know what you think about this!

 

[BlackCatsRuleTheWorld]

Thank you for the school recs and for replying! I don't have too many experiences outside of vet med I was about to start volunteering at an equine facilitated therapy center but couldn't go through with it due to some schedule conflicts. It's mostly focused on assisting disabled children/veterans during their riding sessions with their therapists. I know it's still animal-related but do you think I should opt for this or maybe looking for more non-animal related experiences?

Also, I was able to do a file review with Kansas State. They told me that my science GPA was too low (2.48 at the time) but that was about it.

I think that sounds like a great experience! Do you have any hobbies that you could expand on or include in your application? Maybe a book club, outdoors activity, adult art class, sports team, community involvement? This helps show admissions that you don't live and breathe vet med and only vet med. More importantly, it will help YOU in your life to have things to turn to outside of your career

Many people have things they don't think to include in their app but there's a place for almost everything!

 

[battie]

Do you know if Davis is more holistic when it comes to IS applicants?

They're a smidgen more forgiving to in state students. Not a boat load though. Statistically speaking, however, it is still your best shot.

simply noting down what I did?

When I applied (2013, 2014, and 2015), we only had 600 characters. So I did bullet points to describe what I did. You need to describe what you did and you're consistent.

I also spoke to someone who said that it was more important to retake the prereqs I got a C in instead of a post-bac/masters.. I'd love to know what you think about this!

Heavily school dependent. You would need to ask the schools you apply to. I took 3 cycles that ultimately lead to 3 waitlists and 1 acceptance across all the cycles. Some schools will care about your masters grades, while others don't. Retaking Cs is a low ROI when schools average the retake, so you *have* to get an A to make the retake worth it. And then doing a post bacc with upper level undergrad courses may balance things out from a science or 45GPA perspective.

 

[heymimi]

I think that sounds like a great experience! Do you have any hobbies that you could expand on or include in your application? Maybe a book club, outdoors activity, adult art class, sports team, community involvement? This helps show admissions that you don't live and breathe vet med and only vet med. More importantly, it will help YOU in your life to have things to turn to outside of your career

Many people have things they don't think to include in their app but there's a place for almost everything!

You're right!! My mind is still in a flurry thinking about upcoming apps but when I start working on recording my experiences again I'll be sure to include my non vetmed activities like you mentioned Thanks for reminding me that experiences beyond vetmed are important, it means a lot!

 

[heymimi]

They're a smidgen more forgiving to in state students. Not a boat load though. Statistically speaking, however, it is still your best shot.

When I applied (2013, 2014, and 2015), we only had 600 characters. So I did bullet points to describe what I did. You need to describe what you did and you're consistent.

Heavily school dependent. You would need to ask the schools you apply to. I took 3 cycles that ultimately lead to 3 waitlists and 1 acceptance across all the cycles. Some schools will care about your masters grades, while others don't. Retaking Cs is a low ROI when schools average the retake, so you *have* to get an A to make the retake worth it. And then doing a post bacc with upper level undergrad courses may balance things out from a science or 45GPA perspective.

Thanks for all of the help! I was in a bit of a frenzy after hearing about the masters thing, but I think the most important thing is to consider what I can and want to do.

Also, I was wondering why you recommended applying to Illinois as well? I'm not too familiar with the average GPA of those admitted but I know they do accept a good amount of OOS applicants. Not sure why I didn't apply my first round but after doing some more research now, I'm beginning to fall in love with the campus and location!!

 

[battie]

I was wondering why you recommended applying to Illinois as well?

I was also a student that struggled in parts of undergrad (3.3 cGPA, even worse science, not much better last 45, dead average GRE). If you can get past phase 1, then you have a pretty decent shot overall. 2/3 of the application is the subjective aspects (letters, essays, experiences, etc). So it's worth a shot. It was my only acceptance in 3 cycles. I also did not apply my first or second cycle (life regrets).